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$Unique_ID{bob00210}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Indonesia
Chapter 2C.   The Minorities}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Riga Adiwoso-Suprapto}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{chinese
ethnic
groups
members
own
balinese
village
batak
indonesia
indonesian
see
pictures
see
figures
}
$Date{1982}
$Log{}
Title:       Indonesia
Book:        Indonesia, A Country Study
Author:      Riga Adiwoso-Suprapto
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1982

Chapter 2C.   The Minorities

     Besides the two major ethnic groups, there are other ethnic groups
inhabiting the island of Java, such as the Badui, the Tenggerese, the
Bantenese, and the Madurese. The Badui in the westernmost part of Java and the
Tenggerese in the mountains of eastern Java continue to practice their
Hindu-Buddhist religion. They are isolated culturally and socially from the
two major ethnic groups; contacts are kept to a minimum level of trading
products. The Bantenese in western Java and the Madurese on the island of
Madura consider themselves affiliated with the Javanese, and a majority of
them are Muslims.

Sumatra

     Sumatra is the meeting place of many cultural traditions. Varying
influences have been absorbed, adopted, and altered by the diverse
ethnic groups to suit their own culture, reflected in the norms and values
of each group.

The Acehnese

     The Acehnese inhabit the northernmost part of Sumatra, having their
own language and writing system modified from Arabic. Most live in the
coastal areas; the rugged terrain of the interior is inhospitable. Up to the
beginning of the nineteenth century, Aceh was known for its pepper
plantations; but in the early 1980s most Acehnese engaged in dry-rice
cultivation, in which women planted and maintained the rice fields and the
men plowed and harvested.

     The Acehnese are very attached to their villages, more so the women
than the men, inasmuch as women inherit the land. In addition to the village
headman, a person knowledgeable in the Islamic religious law code (teuku
meunasah) is influential. He oversees the place for prayer and public
gatherings (meunasah) and runs the religious boarding schools (pesantren),
the administration of which is not a village function. The members of the
council of the elders in the villages, consulted in matters related to
inheritance and marriage laws, are higher in social status than others.
But the highest status is held by the members of the aristocratic (ulee
balang) families, who once occupied positions above the village level and
were directly responsible to the sultan. In the early 1980s most of the
wealthy ulee balang members formed the elite group in the Acehnese community.
Having greater access to schools and tertiary education than others, many
had left Aceh to work and live in Jakarta.

     Central to the Acehnese belief system is the separation between
"earthly desire," which has a negative connotation, and "the faculty of
knowing." Praying, a sacred duty, must reflect self-control, a highly
valued habit, and must be perfectly done. After the fasting month of
Ramadan, the Acehnese feel renewed, cleansed, and in full control of
themselves.

     Acehnese society, like the societies of many ethnic groups in Indonesia,
is going through rapid changes. Men who once left their families in the
villages for temporary work to earn enough wealth to provide their wives
with luxury goods now tend to stay away permanently and marry others. The
influx of foreign investments and new transmigrants, even as temporary workers
in the oil fields, have created problems foreign to many Acehnese. Often
friction occurs between the Acehnese and the new arrivals.

The Batak

     Living south of the Acehnese region, the Batak show a cultural
tradition contrasting greatly with that of the Acehnese. The Batak recognize
six different subgroups: the Batak Karo, the Batak Simalungun, the Batak
Pakpak, the Batak Toba, the Batak Angkola, and the Batak Mandailing. The first
three subgroups have their own particular dialects, whereas the others speak
the dialect of the Batak Toba. The Batak live in rural areas in villages
consisting exclusively of members of the same clan. When an original village
(huta) of a clan becomes overcrowded, a new nucleus village for the same clan
is established with the consent of the clan members.

     The lands for rice cultivation are owned by the huta, and the members
have the right to work and reap its harvests. Allocation and transfer of
rights to land are conducted by the council of elders.

     The elders of the huta are responsible for making policy decisions: the
younger ones must implement such decisions, and the youngest are not
included in any important activity. The highest social status is held by
descendants of the nobility; next come priests, shamans, and skilled workers
regarded as possessing magical powers; the newcomers occupy the lowest rank.
The Batak regard original huta members as equal in status to that of the
nobility; tracing descent to the original huta members allows them a higher
position in the stratum than others.

     While most of the Batak are Protestants, the Batak Mandailing and the
Batak Angkla profess Islam. Protestant missionaries of German origin came to
the Batak land as early as 1863, but until 1922 indigenous Batak religious
practices, focused on the spirit world, were still widely observed.

The Minangkabau

     The Minangkabau, living in west-central Sumatra, adhere to a
matrilineal kinship system. The basic social unit of Minangkabau society
is the matrilineal extended family. This system of kinship allows male
members of the family to migrate temporarily to other places to earn money,
a practice that is a major characteristic of the society, as it is among
the Acehnese. A village headman is chosen by the members of the community,
but authority lies chiefly with the descendants of those who originally
settled the village, and they occupy the highest social stratum. In the
early 1980s the nuclear family was becoming increasingly important among the
Minangkabau, owing to new influences from other ethnic groups and the West.
The traditional pattern, in which a man's first responsibility is to the
children of his sister, was changing; a new pattern was developing that
stressed equal responsibility to a man's own wife and children, particularly
to those children living in places other than on Sumatra.

Kalimantan

     The inhabitants of Kalimantan are ethnically heterogeneous. The Dayak,
living mostly in the interior of the island along the rivers, are considered
by many as the indigenous ethnic group. Peoples who live in less isolated
areas tend to become assimilated with other groups, including the Buginese
and Makasarese in Sulawesi, coastal Malays, and Javanese. The main
agricultural activity of the Dayak is rice cultivation, based on the shifting
method but with some permanent cultivation, although the land is not
permanently owned.

     The Dayak are basically a tribal society; chiefhood is usually inherited
by the oldest son. The chief and his family occupy the highest, most
prestigious, social stratum and are not required to work. The commoners are
responsible for the needs of the chief and his family. The chief must
enforce adat pertaining to marriage and minor misdemeanors. Such offenses
are punishable by fines in addition to the obligation to perform certain
ceremonies to restore the balance between man and nature.

     The Dayak kinship system, based on the extended family, has its own
guardian spirits, taboos, and rituals. The Dayak trace their lineage through
either the mother's or the father's line depending on their place of
residence. Most Dayak are either Christian or Muslim; a priest has status
equal to that of the village headman, for he performs most of the rituals.
Among the Ngaju Dayak, a subgroup of the Dayak, the bodies of the deceased
are exhumed for cremation during an elaborate ceremony.

Sulawesi

     The different ecological conditions of Sulawesi have made human
adaptation to its environment unique and challenging. Most of the
population is clustered in the southernmost and northernmost parts of the
island where relatively wide flat lands allow large settlements. People
in the interior are to a certain degree isolated, enabling them to maintain
their traditional ethnic customs. There are four major ethnic groups: the
Makasarese, the Buginese, the Toraja, and the Menadonese (or Minahasanese).
Minor ethnic groups include the Loinang, the Bungku-Laki, and the Muna
Butung.

The Makasarese and Buginese

     Both these groups inhabit the southern part of Sulawesi along with some
Toraja settlers and a minor ethnic group, the Mandar. The two have their own
languages, one with a modified Sanskrit writing system, the other with a
modified Arabic writing system and an extensive traditional literature,
ranging from mythologies to books of laws. Many Buginese and Makasarese are
well-known traders and seafarers; many have also migrated to other parts of
Indonesia in search of economic opportunities or to escape the constant wars
and uprisings in Sulawesi.

     A village encompasses houses, a sacred banyan tree, and a mosque. Its
agricultural activities range from wet- to dry-rice cultivation, and
secondary crops are planted between seasons. Many inhabitants own coconut
estates or do small-scale fishing. Trading with other ethnic groups is
frequent.

     The social stratification of nobility, aristocrats, and commoners is
generally open and fluid, based on the status of the bilateral kin group
and a person's own achievement. Basic to the Buginese and Makasarese is the
concept of pride. One must always defend one's pride no matter what the
consequences; to die defending one's pride is better than to live without
it.

     Most Buginese and Makasarese are Muslim, but the Islamic doctrine is
followed only so long as it does not come into conflict with unwritten
customary norms, which take precedence. Otherwise, pilgrimage to Mecca is an
indication of a person's wealth, seriousness of religious belief, and
knowledge of the world. Belief in spirits still exists among the communities,
nonetheless.

The Toraja

     Once feared as headhunters, the Toraja in the late twentieth century
were passive people, confining their activities to rice cultivation in the
highlands of central Sulawesi. They combine dry-rice with shifting cultivation
on rice fields owned by the village and are a relatively self-sufficient
people. The headman is chosen by the villagers based on his merits and
personal achievements. Although many profess Christianity or Islam, the Toraja
still practice some of their traditional religious customs, such as
ancestor worship and exhumation of the deceased; the bodies are transferred
to a hilltop near the village. A temple in which to worship and store sacred
ornaments can be found in almost all villages.

The Menadonese

     The people of the northern part of Sulawesi call themselves Menadonese,
or Minahasanese. They are considered by the other ethnic groups in Indonesia
to be more deeply influenced by Dutch culture than any other group; but the
Menadonese believe they are descendants of migrants from the Philippines who
came in waves from Luzon.

     Cultivation of maize, their main staple, on individually owned land is
the main activity, besides hunting for wild boars and bats. Menadonese
living around Lake Tondano are fishermen.

     The kinship system is bilateral, and marriage can take place only
between members of different kin groups. They are stratified into three main
social classes: priests or those with authority in religious law, those in
government administration, and commoners. Education and one's occupation are
the main variables that determine social class, and white-collar workers have
higher status than well-to-do farmers, fishermen, or manual laborers.

     Even though the majority of Menadonese are Protestant, and some are
Catholic, they still practice traditional religious rituals. The
Menadonese, having been influenced by Dutch colonial culture and having
enjoyed Dutch education, tend to aspire to enter government services, and
their culture emphasizes obedience toward superiors while giving less value
to initiative. Because manual labor is not valued, coconut plantations are
maintained by migrants from the islands of Sangir and Talaud. Because Chinese
traders usually own the retail shops, the Menadonese have migrated to Java
and other places in Indonesia to look for clerical positions. They are
less attached to their place of origin than are most other ethnic groups.

The Maluku Islands

     The Maluku Islands are inhabited by many different, relatively isolated
ethnic groups. One of the major groups is the Ambonese, living along the
coastal areas of the islands of Ambon, Haruku, Saparua, and in west Ceram.
Their main staples are cassava and sago, which grow wild in the swamp areas.
Fish provide protein in their diet, but they limit fishing to what they
consume daily. Hunting is a favorite pastime for many young males. The
Ambonese kinship system is patrilineal, and residence is patrilocal.

     Characteristic of the Ambonese is the patalima, or patasiwa, a
military organization famous in the past for its warfare expeditions. This
military tradition attracted the Ambonese to the Royal Netherlands Indies
Army (KNIL), which provided them preferred status. The Dutch encouraged the
patalima concept to keep Ambonese troops combat ready in order to suppress
uprisings by other ethnic groups. The Ambonese KNIL members were feared by
many, and they also had more privileges than other ethnic groups during the
Dutch era. Many supported the Dutch-proclaimed "Republik Maluku Selatan"
in 1947 and left Indonesia in 1949, being promised that the Dutch government
would support them in gaining back their republic. Those disappointed with
living conditions in the Netherlands returned to Indonesia in the 1970s to
face yet other problems of readjustment, cultural gaps and, often, conflicts
with Ambonese who never left Ambon.

     Many Ambonese profess Protestant Christianity, but others are Muslim.
Like other ethnic groups, they also believe in supernatural spirits that must
be given food and shelter. Like the Javanese, the Ambonese conduct an annual
ceremony of cleaning their villages and houses. People who neglect to
partake in this ceremony, it is believed, will become sick and die.

     Many Ambonese view life as being too dear to be wasted in working,
and a person should only take from nature what is needed for the day. The
concept of enterprise and capital accumulation is foreign, because the
focus of their life is the practice of gathering together for the sole
purpose of conversing with one another. Understandably, they see no value in
working to attain a higher standard of living.

The Lesser Sunda Islands

The People of Timor

     The people living on Timor and the islands surrounding it differentiate
themselves into many groups, including the Rotinese, the Helonese, and the
Atonese. To outsiders, however, they will all identify themselves first as
being people of Timor.

     A village in Timor usually consists of houses of related kin. Each house
is inhabited by a nuclear family. A space is used to pray or to conduct
religious ceremonies. Unlike other ethnic groups, Timorese do not have the
concept of mutual aid (gotong royong). The poor soil and harsh living
conditions have forced the family to work alone for its survival; usually
men prepare the fields, and women help in planting maize, their main staple.
Most Timorese own some cattle, to be inherited by the eldest son.

     An administrative officer, usually a descendant of original settlers,
aided by two assistants, collects taxes, distributes undeveloped arable
land, and upholds adat. Being respected in the community, he must serve as
arbitrator in local disputes and must always attend important ceremonies
held by the community members.

     The Timorese distinguish three different social strata: the early
original settlers; later settlers coming just after the village was
established; and newcomers, lowest in rank. A newcomer is usually stigmatized
and is often suspected of being an outcast of or a criminal from a
different village.

     Officially, the Timorese are Christian, but they still observe their
traditional belief system and practices. They believe that there are two
gods ruling the universe, the god of life, earth, and fertility, and
the god of the sky, the creator and guardian. They also believe the
earth is inhabited by good and evil spirits and their ancestor spirits, who
must be offered sacrifices. Ceremonies conducted by a shaman commemorate
the deceased, and ideal ancestor spirits are honored on special occasions.
The shaman is also called in to trace the reason for illness.

     The harsh terrain and infertile soil conditions of Timor have made human
adaptation difficult. In the early 1980s health conditions and living
conditions, in general, were very poor. The government heavily subsidized
the arid lands of Timor with food shipments and looked for other approaches
to a long-term solution.

The Balinese

     The Balinese are one of the few groups that have been able to maintain
the essentials of a traditional culture and religion without having to adapt
to the influences of Islam and Christianity. The Balinese are very conscious
of their own ethnic identity; segregation between themselves and outsiders is
the main stabilizing factor in their culture. Technical innovations or new
methods in agriculture are not adopted quickly but are screened by the
community for applicability. They are oriented toward life hereafter.
Nevertheless, maintaining good relationships with others and observing
religious doctrine are central ideas to the Balinese. Religious ceremonies in
Bali are always elaborate, because by sacrificing to the deities they believe
life will be meaningful. The Balinese do not have a concept of material
culture; wealth is considered only as a means of sustaining life and of
offering sacrifices to the deities.

     The Balinese faith, although Hindu in theory, is actually more a melding
of Hindu and Balinese tradition. They believe in one supreme deity with three
manifestations: the god of creation, the god of protection, and the god of
destruction, as well as lesser deities. According to the teaching of their
holy book, one of the four basic concepts in life is moksa, or release from
the cycle of reincarnation. To reach moksa is the ultimate desire.

     Religious ceremonies are held in the temple compound, and each temple has
its own function. There are temples related to village social life, to
agricultural irrigation life, to organizations in the village, to worship of
ancestor spirits, and to extended-family occasions. Usually, a priest is in
charge of conducting these ceremonies.

     The Balinese regard themselves as further divided into two subgroups:
Balinese Aga and Balinese Hindu. The Balinese Aga are not too influenced by
the Hindu Javanese culture of the Majapahit era in the fourteenth century,
whereas the Balinese Hindu, to which the majority belong, have been exposed
to, and have adopted, many of the Hindu Javanese elements.

     The village community (banjar) is central to Balinese life. Besides being
a member of a banjar, a Balinese also belongs to a group of persons sharing
an irrigation system (subak). Another organization a Balinese may belong to is
the community organization (seka). Each seka has special tasks in the village,
particularly for ceremonial purposes. By being members of a seka, the Balinese
are able to organize mutual aid, based on unwritten norms or reciprocity.

     Balinese society is further stratified according to caste-like classes,
which differ from the closed castes of the Hindu system in India. Admission to
another class is possible by endorsement from others of the upper class as
well as personal merit. The system is based on descent traced from the royalty
of the fourteenth-century Majapahit kingdom; the closer one can trace descent
to the royal families of that kingdom, the higher one's class. The highest
case is brahmana, followed by satrya, and then waisy. These three classes
constitute the nobility; the rest of the people belong to the class of the
commoners.

     The Balinese kinship system is basically patrilineal, and the clan is the
basic social unit. The members of a clan must maintain their clan obligation,
such as organizing ceremonies in the clan temple, to strengthen clan
solidarity.

Western New Guinea

     Irian Jaya, the Indonesian portion of New Guinea, is sparsely populated,
owing to its inhospitable ecology and resultant lack of development. In the
interior of Irian Jaya there remain tribes largely unknown to the outside
world. Many of these tribes have migrated recently to the northern coast,
permanently or semipermanently. The tribal people differ not only socially and
culturally from other Indonesians, who see them as lacking initiative and
being indifferent to government measures to improve their subsistence-level
living conditions, but also racially, being Papuan (members of the Melanesian
family group).

     The main dietary staple is sago, taken from the stalk of sago trees. Each
family claims certain exclusive rights for a sago tree area. Hunting is an
exclusively male activity. The kinship system is a loose patrilineal clan
without any significant means for maintaining solidarity among clan members.
A headman is not officially elected but appoints himself when the clan members
trust him to provide liaison with the government.

     Life in the towns and villages is dominated by outsiders-missionaries,
government employees, or migrant workers brought in from other islands by the
companies operating in Irian Jaya. The latter form their own enclaves, having
little interaction with the local people.

Scattered Minorities

     Perceived as having a separate, "nonnative" cultural identity are members
of several ethnic minorities who have never been fully assimilated into the
dominant Indonesian society. Among such groups are the Chinese, the Arabs, and
the Indians.

     The Chinese divide themselves into two groups: those seen as "pure"
Chinese and those seen as "mixed" Chinese, in accordance with varying degrees
of acculturation into Indonesian society. Each group considers itself higher
in social status than the other. The "mixed" Chinese see themselves as
superior because they came to Indonesia earlier and originally had been
merchants with wealth in China; for them the "pure" Chinese of a later
migration wave were merely laborers and servants. The "pure" Chinese, however,
see themselves as superior because they had not married outside their own
ethnic communities.

     The Chinese are internally stratified according to wealth and education;
higher social status can be gained through accumulating wealth. Most are
small-scale retail traders, still maintaining the important position in the
Indonesian economy they had established under the Dutch. Those on the islands
of Riau Province, however, are agricultural workers or fishermen; other
Chinese in Sumatra work on estates or in mines. They are considered inferior
to the Chinese traders not only because they are poor, but also because they
came with the last migrant waves to Indonesia in the 1930s.

     The Chinese in the early 1980s were going through social and economic
change. Many were trying to adjust to pressures put on them to become
integrated into the larger Indonesian society. Yet, such integration was made
difficult by both Indonesian apprehensions and the internal cohesiveness of
the Chinese family. Having the resources to imitate Western-style living,
they had begun to move out of their crowded enclaves and into Western-style
residences elsewhere, arousing some resentment from non-Chinese.

     Even though they were changing their living pattern, many remained
oriented toward their Chinese communities. In each community there was a
Chinese chamber of commerce, which aided its members in matters related to
trade, to government regulations, and particularly to taxes. These
organizations lent great support to the Chinese business community and have
promoted ethnic cohesiveness.

     The question of citizenship for the Chinese in Indonesia remained an
unresolved issue. The first official effort to address the question began in
the early 1950s, culminating in the signing of an agreement on dual
nationality between Indonesia and China in April 1955. That agreement provided
that Chinese residents in Indonesia were to choose their citizenship based on
free will within a two-year period after the agreement was ratified by both
countries. The agreement was never ratified by the Indonesian side, however,
because of strong domestic objections raised against the accord. There were
widespread Indonesian apprehensions that the nationality agreement would, on
balance, be more advantageous to China and the local Chinese community. In
1969 the unratified agreement was abrogated by the New Order government of
Soeharto.

     The key issue has been whether, from the Indonesian perspective at least,
the estimated 4 million members of the Chinese community, of whom about 2.5
million were Indonesian citizens in 1982, should and could be assimilated into
the mainstream Indonesian society, or whether they should be allowed to
maintain their own identity and culture like any other indigenous ethnic
group in Indonesia. The Indonesian government has preferred the option of
assimilation, evidently because of lingering concern that Chinese residents
would pose a potentially subversive threat to Indonesia. In an effort to
hasten the process of naturalizing the so-called "stateless" Chinese without
Indonesian citizenship, the Soeharto government in early 1980 issued two
presidential decrees dealing with issuance of certificates of Indonesian
citizenship and procedures for taking out citizenship. These decrees were
intended to simplify the complicated, time-consuming procedures for
naturalization. The previously rigid requirements were eased somewhat, and
applicants were obligated to take an Indonesian language and history test and
submit a loyalty pledge to the Republic of Indonesia. The extent to which the
"stateless" Chinese were naturalized under these decrees remained unclear in
1982.

     The Arabs and Indians in Indonesia have always kept a low profile. Most
of them live in ethnic-oriented communities of their own, where they preserve
their own cultural traditions. Most of them are merchants in retail trade.
Indonesians regard the Arabs as their superiors in knowledge of Islamic laws,
and Indonesian santri maintain close ties with them. But the Arabs continue
to live within the community and marry only within their own group.

     In the early 1980s Vietnamese refugees were another ethnically distinct
group. The government, concerned that they might become a subversive
influence, confined them to Galang Island off the east coast of Sumatra. The
Vietnamese were officially regarded as unacceptable permanent residents
because Indonesia already had its own internal problems, particularly with the
Chinese. Accordingly, the refugees had no position or influence on the
society, and they were seen as added burdens on the government.